Note from the Faculty Director
Happy New Year! 2018 marks a new beginning for the DLA, as we welcome a new colleague in Michael Kramer. This week we also are sponsoring a lecture from a major thinker about the future of higher education, Cathy Davidson, on Wednesday afternoon. Read more below to learn about Michael, and see what is in store for the DLA in January!
-Jason Mittell, Faculty Director of the DLA
In this issue:
- Welcome to Michael Kramer!
- Cathy Davidson on The New Education
- DLA-related events in Winter Term
Professor Michael J. Kramer Joins the DLA
The DLA is excited to announce that we have hired Professor Michael J. Kramer to join us at Middlebury! Michael will be the Associate Director of the DLA and Professor of the Practice in digital history. He comes to Middlebury from Northwestern University, where he was Visiting Assistant Professor of History and co-founded the Northwestern Digital Humanities Laboratory. His research focuses on the cultural history of 20th century America, with expertise on music, popular culture, and technology, as exemplified by his book The Republic of Rock: Music and Citizenship in the Sixties Counterculture (Oxford University Press, 2013; paperback, 2017), as well as his writings on digital history.
Michael will manage day-to-day operations of the DLA based in the CTLR, as well as work with other faculty to integrate digital pedagogy and research strategies into their work. He joins us mid-year in January, and will start teaching courses in digital history in the fall. Stop by Davis Library 215 to say hello!
Learn More about Michael J. Kramer.
Special Event: Professor Cathy Davidson on The New Education
On Wednesday, January 10 at 4:30pm in Dana Auditorium, Professor Cathy Davidson will discuss her new book, The New Education: How to Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World in Flux. Professor Davidson, an educational innovator and a distinguished scholar of the history of technology, is an avid proponent of active ways of learning that help students to understand and navigate the radically changed global world in which we now all live, work, and learn. Davidson is Distinguished Professor of English and Founding Director of the Futures Initiative at the Graduate Center, CUNY, and the R. F. DeVarney Professor Emerita of Interdisciplinary Studies at Duke University where she served as Duke’s (and the nation’s) first Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies. Davidson is the cofounding director (2002-2017, now co-director) of HASTAC (“Haystack”), Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory. She is on the Board of Directors of Mozilla and served on the National Council of the Humanities as an appointee of President Barack Obama (2011-2017). She is the 2016 recipient of the Ernest J. Boyer Award for Significant Contributions to Higher Education, she champions new ideas and methods for learning and professional development–in school, in the workplace, and in everyday life. Professor Davidson’s visit is co-sponsored by the Office of the President, the Digital Liberal Arts Initiative, the Library, and the Center for Teaching, Learning & Research.
Learn More About Cathy Davidson.
January Events of Note
Professor Davidson’s lecture kicks off a Winter Term full of events relevant to the DLA. Check out the CTLR’s site featuring numerous presentations and sessions as part of the Contemporary Pedagogy Series, as well as a series of sessions focused on digital tools and techniques for teaching. We hope to see many of you at these events!
If you have any questions about the DLA, please contact us at dla@middlebury.edu.